_ Medical CareOutpatient Urology Surgery Ups Deaths Risk By Sondra Forsyth articleAs hospitals have shifted an array of common urological surgeries from inpatient procedures to outpatient, potentially preventable deaths have increased following complications. Those were the primary findings of a study led by Henry Ford Hospital researchers in Detroit. The paper was published online in August 2014 by BJUI, the official journal of the British Association of Urological Surgeons. The investigators initially expected that improved mortality rates recently documented for surgery overall would also translate to commonly performed urologic surgeries.
_ Heart HealthCrucial Heart-Disease Devices Benefit People of Color By Jane Farrell articleRacial and ethnic minorities who get implantable devices to treat heart failure derive the same survival benefit as white patients, new research shows. But non-white patients are getting the devices at a much lower rate. The study, one of the largest to compare the survival benefits of the devices by race and ethnicity, looked at 15,000 patients from 167 medical practices across the U.S. The findings are published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.
_ 5 Food-Drug Interactions You Want to Avoid By Sondra Forsyth articleBy Leah Shainhouse You have heard it again and again: Adapt to a healthy lifestyle. If you make sure to eat well, a plethora of diseases can be prevented or managed. However, there are times when you walk into your doctor’s office, either for a routine check-up or for some sort of ache or pain and you have no choice. You walk out with another prescription, whether it is to help lower your cholesterol, control your blood pressure or fight off an infection.
_ Medical CareDoctors & Patients Making Decisions Together By Sondra Forsyth articleShared decision-making is a concept that’s gaining traction in medicine, particularly in areas of health care, where patients are presented with more than one reasonable treatment option. The programs, which feature patient-education tools such as online surveys and videos, have several goals. One is to help people thoroughly understand their choices and assure them that they are making informed decisions.
_ Medical CareThose with Not Long to Live Still Get Screenings for Cancer By Sondra Forsyth articleA substantial number of older patients with limited life expectancy continue to receive routine screenings for prostate, breast, cervical, and colorectal cancer although the procedures are unlikely to benefit them, according to the authors of a study done at theUniversity of North Carolina at Chapel Hill by Trevor J. Royce, M.D., M.S. and colleagues.
_ Heart HealthGood Neighbors May Curb Heart Attack Risk By Sondra Forsyth articleAlthough some studies suggest that the factors such as area violence and noise can negatively affect cardiovascular health, few studies have looked at the potential health enhancing effects of positive local neighborhood characteristics. This prompted the authors of an article published in 2014 in BMJ to track the cardiovascular health of over 5000 US adults with no known heart problems over a period of four years, starting in 2006. Their average age was 70, and almost two thirds were women and married (62%).
_ Mental & Emotional HealthShould You See a Shrink? By articleBy Sherrie Campbell, PhDIt is often the assumption that if you go to therapy that you have serious problems you cannot manage on your own and there is something fundamentally wrong with you. In reality, if someone is attending therapy, the person tends to be on the healthier side of self-love and self-awareness. Because seeing a therapist is stigmatized many people who want to seek help, either often they don’t, or they keep their therapy private so they do not invoke judgment.
_ Sleep HealthPoor Sleep Ups Suicide Risk in Older Adults By Sondra Forsyth articleReported poor sleep quality independent of a depressed mood appears to be associated with an increased risk for suicide in older adults, according to e study done by Rebecca A. Bernert, Ph.D. of the Stanford University School of Medicine, California and colleagues and published online in JAMA Psychiatry August 13th 2014.
Brain HealthElasticity of Brain Arteries & Aging Well By Sondra Forsyth articleIn an effort to identify how the elasticity of the arteries in the brain correlates with aging well, researchers at the Beckman Institute at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign used optical methods developed in their lab to map out the pulse pressure of the entire brain’s cortex.
_ MenopauseMany Menopausal Women Go to Anti-Aging Docs By Sondra Forsyth articleFeeling that conventional doctors did not take their suffering seriously, women instead sought out hormonal treatments for menopausal symptoms from anti-aging clinicians, according to a sudy done at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland.
_ Mental & Emotional HealthOlder Adults Weathered the Recession Well By Sondra Forsyth articleThe "Great Recession" may have put a dent in many older adults' pocketbooks, but a study presented at the 109th Annual Meeting of the American Sociological Association in August 2014 in San Francisco found that more than 40 percent reported a decrease in "financial strain" between 2006 and 2010.
_ FluHigh-Dose Flu Vaccine Best for Elderly By Sondra Forsyth articleHigh-dose influenza vaccine is 24 percent more effective than the standard-dose vaccine in protecting people ages 65 and over against influenza illness and its complications, according to a study led by Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville TN and published August 13th 2014 in the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM).
_ Mental & Emotional HealthDepression Often Untreated in PD By Sondra Forsyth articleIn light of the revelation that the late Robin Williams had early Parkinson’s Disease when he committed suicide on August 11th 2014, a study published in the August 2014 issue of the Journal of Parkinson's Disease is of particular interest. Researchers at Northwestern University in Chicago in collaboration with the National Parkinson's Foundation (NPF) found that although depression is known to be a common symptom of Parkinson's disease, the mood disorder often remains untreated for many patients.
_ Heart HealthMayo Clinic Challenges Cholesterol Guideline By Sondra Forsyth articleA Mayo Clinic task force has challenged some recommendations in the updated guideline for cholesterol treatment that was unveiled by the American College of Cardiology (ACC) and American Heart Association (AHA) in 2013. The task force concludes, based on current evidence, that not all patients encouraged to take cholesterol-lowering medications such as statins may benefit from them and that the guideline missed some important conditions that might benefit from medication.
_ Mental & Emotional HealthRisky Work Scenarios Make Women Anxious & Less Competent By Sondra Forsyth articleRisky situations at work increase anxiety for women and hurt their job performance, according to a study done at Stanford University and presented at the 109th Annual Meeting of the American Sociological Association in August 2014 in San Francisco. On the other hand, study author Susan R. Fisk found that anxiety did not raise anxiety levels for men and that men’s job performance was unaffected.
_ Mental & Emotional HealthHow to Cultivate Contentment By Jane Farrell articleBy Mayo Clinic StaffDo you know how to be happy? Or are you waiting for happiness to find you?
_ OsteoporosisOxidative Stress Predicts Hip Fracture By Sondra Forsyth articleOxidative stress -- a disruption in the balance between the production of free radicals and antioxidants -- is a significant predictor for hip fracture in postmenopausal women, according to research led by University of Cincinnati epidemiologists and published online ahead of print in August 2014 in the Journal of Bone and Mineral Research.
_ Brain HealthDigital Literacy Reduces Cognitive Decline By Sondra Forsyth articleCongratulations, ThirdAge fan! The fact that you are at your computer reading this means that you are among the digital literati – and that accomplishment promises to lower your risk of cognitive decline as you age.Researchers led by Andre Junqueira Xavier at the Universidade do Sul de Santa Catarina in Brazil have found that the ability to engage, plan, and execute digital actions such as web browsing and exchanging emails can improve memory. The results were published in July 8th 2014 in The Journals of Gerontology, Series A: Medical Sciences.